The Flying Carpet: Gulliver’s Islands

“Gulliver’s Travels” is a world-famous satirical novel by the Dublin-born writer, Anglican priest and politician Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), published in 1726.

Swift’s Gulliver has never been more relevant! A fantasy saga, a political satire, a witty reckoning with human malice and stupidity.

Swift achieves the unique feat of providing excellent entertainment with a ‘novel of misanthropy’ (J.G. Herder). For his snorting mockery is directed at our entire curious species, along with its overconfidence. This becomes particularly palpable in the fourth part of the classic, translated by Christa Schuenke, in which Lemuel Gulliver finds himself on the island of the Houyhnhnms, inhabited by horses, who keep humans – known as Yahoos – as domestic and working animals, and where he becomes acutely aware of his humanity in a very particular way. We have succeeded in securing Martina Gedeck for this reading – one of the most distinguished German film actresses of her generation, who has been awarded the German Audiobook Prize for her narration.

Accompanying this is chamber music by Swift’s contemporary, the German composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767), who composed a suite entitled ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ less than two years after the novel’s publication. These and other works by the long-underappreciated Baroque composer will be performed by members of the “Galatea Quartet”, together with Peter Solomon, who previously brought Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater” to the Rigiblick stage.

This performance is part of the series ‘The Flying Carpet – Eight Literary and Musical Island Journeys’.
A season ticket is also available for this series. Eight performances for a season ticket price of CHF 240. To order, visit info@theater-rigiblick.ch